Search for new Estes Park superintendent hits a snag

Candidate's stance on creationism creates controversy

The smooth-running search for a new superintendent for the Estes Park School District has hit some unexpected bumps and a possible controversy.

Three of four finalists for the job visited Estes Park last Friday and were interviewed by two 10-person committees and the school board on Saturday.

The result of those interviews is that two of the final four - Sheldon Rosenkrance and Joni Burgin - have emerged as the frontrunners. Rosenkrance is the principal of Coupeville (Wash.) Middle School/High School in the Coupeville School District. Burgin is the superintendent of the Grantsburg (Wis.) School District. Burgin has served as superintendent there for 17 years.

Sheldon Rosenkrance

The other two candidates, Tina Goar and Kevin Schott, have been removed from consideration. Goar is the rural liaison for the Colorado Department of Education. Schott is the superintendent of the North Conejos School District in Colorado.

Rosenkrance and Burgin were rated about even by the committees and the board, despite the fact that Rosenkrance's interview was conducted face-to-face and Burgin's was done by Skype, said Estes Park School Board President Dr. Marie Richardson.

The arrangement for Burgin's interview by Skype was necessitated by the fact that one of Burgin's office employees was killed in a car accident late last week.

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The board, in an effort to be fair with all the candidates, decided at a special meeting Monday afternoon to invite Burgin to come to Estes Park for a face-to-face interview as the other candidates did.

The board passed a motion to make sure that happens by no later than April 18.

In the meantime, a number of letters has been received by the board saying that Burgin once proposed the teaching of creationism in the Grantsburg (Wis.) School District.

"People are just making sure we know and that we're looking into it," Richardson said.

When asked if that will be one of the topics that the board asks Burgin when she visits, Richardson said: "Absolutely."

According to an Associated Press story written in Nov. 2004, the Grantsburg School Board revised its science curriculum to allow the teaching of creationism, prompting an outcry from more than 300 educators who urged that the decision by reversed.

School board members said at the time that they believed a state law governing the teaching of evolution was too restrictive. The science curriculum "should not be totally inclusive of just one scientific theory," said Burgin, superintendent of the district, in the AP story.

The decision provoked more than 300 biology and religious studies faculty members to write a letter urging the Grantsburg board to reverse the policy. It followed a letter sent previously by 43 deans at Wisconsin public universities.

A month later, in December, the Grantsburg School District changed its policy on the teaching of evolution to clarify that creationism and the theory of intelligent design will not be taught in class, according to a story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Burgin said the board rewrote the policy to make sure it was legally sound and to allay concerns from some community members that religious theories of origin would be taught in class.

"We wanted to make sure that it was clear that this is a 'teach-the-controversy-about-evolution' approach with scientific data," Burgin said. "It's not creationism. It's not intelligent design. It's science."